After breakfast, we walked along the Regent Canal Path, where we saw houseboats moored, locks in action, and lots of walkers and joggers -- all enjoying the beautiful, sunny day.
We stumbled upon Camden Locks Market, another crowded, outdoor market with ethnic food and clothing and craft stalls. The boys liked this market better than Portobello Road since it had funkier stuff, including KidRobot figures and cool T-shirts.
We saw many tourists with their backpacks like this,which I know is safety conscious, but if I were a thief, it would just make me want to rob this guy even more.
Brittannia reminders everywhere
Old mopeds made into seating for people eating lunch
We rounded off our day with a trip to Chinatown, where we ate at Four Seasons (not the hotel), which offered standard, but good Chinese food -- delicious roast pork. We have found Chinese food in Glasgow to be either Westernized take-away or expensive, so we were happy to have a reasonably priced, solid meal.
Today (Monday), our big plan was to go to the Tower of London. We saw the crown jewels, visited the armour and weapons in the white tower, spied some ravens picking through the trash, and walked along the tower's walls.
The tower used to house the royal menagerie, where the exotic animals given to kings were kept. People used to be able to go into a living room and be entertained by monkeys using people furniture. The menagerie closed and the animals were shipped off to the London zoo, after repeated attacks on people and on animals, including a girl's arm mauled by a lion and a boy attacked by a monkey and an ostrich that died after being fed a nail. Glad to see the change in zoo-keeping over time -- at least they try to simulate the animals' natural habitats and food!
Of course, some animals should be kept in cages.
Or, they may get at the weapons!!
A cool dragon created by old objects, including coins, guns, shields, and chain mail.
We liked this cannon with the sheep on the back -- maybe meant for peace?
Lunch with a view at Zizzi, a UK Italian restaurant chain (there's one two blocks from our flat in Glasgow, but we waited until we traveled to London to go to one - hah). The idyllic view of the harbor at St Katharine's Docks and the delicious super food salad (butternut squash, zucchini, edamame and goat cheese) created a moment of calm that allowed me to face our next charge back to the crowds at Leicester Square to get theatre tickets for tonight and Piccadilly Circus to search for manga books for Cormac.
We went to see the play, The Ladykillers, which was very funny with lots of physical humor, e.g. man gets hit by flipping chalkboard over and over again. So, obviously a big hit with everyone, especially the boys! Another great couple of days in London!
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